Ahrefs Review 2025: My Honest Experience With Its SEO Features

Increasing a website’s search traffic is REALLY challenging, especially if you’re new to SEO.

Finding better keywords, creating the right content, attracting highly relevant visitors and outranking competitors – all are NOT easy.

I’ve been there, struggling to increase my blog’s traffic. That’s when I started using tools like Ahrefs that changed how I handle SEO.

I’ve been using Ahrefs for a few months now and I know its features and capabilities. The reason to consider Ahrefs over its competitors is its accurate and in-depth SEO data.

In this unbiased review, I’ll share my personal experience with Ahrefs, its pros, cons, and whether it’s worth the money in 2025.

If you’re planning to purchase Ahrefs but are not sure if it’s the right tool for you, this review will help you decide. Let’s get started!

Ahrefs Review Quick Summary With Pros & Cons:

After testing & using Ahrefs for my SEO needs this is what I find:

Ahrefs is an excellent tool for those looking for in-depth and accurate research for keywords and backlinks. It’s a great choice for website owners, agencies, content creators, and small businesses who want to boost their search traffic.

However, if you’re on a limited budget, Ahrefs is NOT the right choice, it’s not the cheapest option. There are other Ahrefs alternatives you can consider for affordable options.

The main benefit of choosing Ahrefs over other tools like Semrush, Moz, etc is it offers one of the largest and most reliable backlink and keyword databases. 

Also, its web crawler, “AhrefsBot,” powers the database for Ahrefs and crawls over 5 million web pages per minute. This makes it the second most active crawler after Google.

That being said, if you’re a solo content creator, you can opt for cheaper alternatives like SE Ranking, Moz Pro, Mangools, etc. If you just need basic SEO tools, you can go with Ubersuggest, as it’s the cheapest.

So, is Ahrefs worth it in 2025? 

Yes, if you have the budget and are looking for the BIGGEST databases for accurate SEO research, it’s worth it. But if you’re just starting out or only need basic features, you can try cheaper alternatives.

Ahrefs Pros	Ahrefs Cons
It offers an excellent interface, so it doesn’t take much time to explore Ahrefs’ features.	Ahrefs doesn’t offer any free trials.
It provides a massive database of 28.7 billion keywords (2.1 billion in the US alone).	Ahrefs’ entry-level plan has very limited reporting and restrictive limits.
It has the world’s biggest collection of live backlinks, updated every 15 to 30 minutes with 35 trillion links.	Daily keyword updates in Rank Tracker are not available (unless I sign up for Project Boost Max, which costs $200/mo per project).
Access to all the essential SEO tools, including keyword research, backlink analysis, site auditing, etc.	Only one user is included with all the plans.
Best tool for keyword research, including accurate search volume, keyword difficulty, etc.
The site audit feature is excellent, showing all my website’s on-page and technical SEO issues.
Its Site Explorer tool helps me analyze any website’s backlink profiles and search traffic.
The Content Explorer tool helps me identify top content and find link building prospects.
Its Competitive Analysis tool helps me see how my competitors’ websites perform compared to mine.

---

Ahrefs Review: Still the Best SEO Tool? A Deep Dive into Its Features

Ahrefs Introduction & First Impressions

Ahrefs is a popular SEO toolkit used by thousands of SEO professionals and website owners for keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitor analysis. 

Ahrefs was founded in 2010 by Dmytro Gerasymenko. It was primarily launched as a tool focusing on backlink analysis. Then, they introduced new features such as Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Content Explorer, making it into a comprehensive SEO toolkit.

It offers four pricing plans: Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise.

It doesn’t offer a free trial. Beginners can start with their basic Lite plan to test its key features.

Ahrefs innovates its platform by frequently launching new features. Its recent features include web Analytics additions, the share of voice charts in Rank Tracker, PDF custom reports, Patches, Ask AI in Content Helper, and more. 

Facts & Stats About Ahrefs:

• Ahrefs has one of the largest live backlink indexes, with over 35 trillion links in its database.
• Ahrefs is run by 135 people from 24 locations, and its headquarters is in Singapore.
• AhrefsBot crawls 5+ million web pages every minute, second only to Google.
• Every 24 hours, Ahrefs discovers 10 million new pages and its content index size is over 16 billion.
• It also has the BIGGEST keyword database globally, with 28.7 billion keywords from 217 locations.
• Ahrefs is trusted by marketers from 44% of the Fortune 500 companies, including Adobe, IBM, eBay, Dell, Uber, Alibaba, etc.

Ahrefs Key Features:

• Site Explorer for backlink & competitor analysis 
• Content Explorer for content analysis
• Keywords Explorer for keyword research 
• Site Audit for technical SEO issues
• Rank Tracking and Monitoring to track keyword rankings in desktop and mobile
• Content Gap Analysis to find better content opportunities 
• Web Analytics, which is a free alternative to Google Analytics
• Detailed Reporting

People primarily choose Ahrefs because of its massive backlink database and accurate keyword research capabilities. 

Ahrefs Primary Audience:

Ahrefs is an excellent choice for bloggers, solopreneurs, small businesses, and agencies. 

• It suits freelancers and website owners, as one can conduct in-depth keyword research and backlink analysis.
• Ahrefs is helpful for content marketers, as they can use Ahrefs to identify high-performing keywords and optimize their content for better search rankings.
• Ahrefs is great for agencies, as one can manage multiple client projects and offer detailed reports.

That’s the introduction, now let’s head to the Ahrefs features and review them one by one.

---

Ahrefs Interface: Is it Easy to Use?

Ahrefs has a user-friendly interface that is easy to use, even for beginners.

Here’s what its interface looks like;

As shown above, I can access ALL its features from the top navigation.

It also shows my website’s overview, including;

• Overall health score from Site Audit
• Domain rating
• Referring domains and backlinks
• Organic traffic and keywords
• Tracked keywords positions 

Verdict: Compared to tools like Semrush, Ahrefs has a shorter learning curve, making it easier to get started.

---

Words on Ahrefs Keywords Explorer:

To get keyword data in Ahrefs, I need to use its ‘Keywords Explorer’ tool. 

The biggest benefit of Keywords Explorer is that I can access over 28 billion keywords from 217 locations worldwide. 

One big problem with most tools is data inaccuracy. Fortunately, Ahrefs offers accurate keyword metrics, including search volume, traffic potential, CPC, keyword difficulty, etc.

I simply enter any seed keyword and choose a database (such as USA) and hit the Search button. I can also use Ahrefs’ AI feature to get seed keyword suggestions.

The tool instantly gives me an overview of the seed keyword.

As shown above, it tells me the keyword difficulty score is over 90, which is super hard to rank for. Along with that, I also get search volume and traffic potential for the keyword.

If I scroll down, the tool gives me thousands of keyword ideas including;

• Terms match keywords
• Question keywords
• Also rank for keywords

If I click on the “Terms Match” keywords and choose the “Commercial Intent” and keyword difficulty between 20 to 30, I can access plenty of relevant and easy-to-rank keywords.

Have a look;

As shown above, within a minute, I got 74 low-competitive keywords I could target. Also, I get access to essential keyword metrics, including;

• Parent topic for each keyword
• The intent of each keyword
• Keyword difficulty score
• SV data (Search Volume data shows an estimation of the average monthly number of searches for a keyword over 12 months)
• Traffic Potential (A unique metric that tells me the total organic traffic my target keyword gets if I rank #1 for it)
• I can also see the CPC value, which shows the average price advertisers pay for each ad.

For more specific research, I can also filter keywords with SERP features.

As shown above, the SERP features filter can include featured snippets, AI overviews, images, videos, and local business listings, etc., allowing me to target keywords with specific SERP features.

That means I can easily find keywords that are currently triggering “featured snippets.”

Although Ahrefs is one of the best tools for keyword research, it is expensive. If I’m primarily looking for a keyword tool, I’d instead try cheaper alternatives like SE Ranking or Mangools.

According to my usage, I found Ahrefs is the best tool available in the market for in-depth keyword research. Its unique features, including traffic potential and accurate keyword data, make it an excellent choice. 

---

Site Explorer:

Site Explorer is an excellent tool from Ahrefs, which allows me to look in-depth at the backlink profile and search traffic of any URL.

This is REALLY useful because it allows you to understand what SEO strategies your competitors are using, identify new link building opportunities, and find content gaps.

When I enter any competitor’s domain, it will show an overview of their backlinks and organic search data.

I can see the website traffic by location and find out the top 5 countries driving traffic to a website.

I can also see organic keywords by intent, categorized as informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial, which helps me understand what users are searching for in my niche.

However, the data in Site Explorer is NOT always real-time, which means you may miss new link building opportunities. 

Overall, Site Explorer is an excellent tool from Ahrefs for analyzing backlinks and search traffic. However, its learning curve may become drawbacks for beginners.

---

Content Explorer:

The Content Explorer tool helps me find top-performing topics and blog posts in my niche. Using it, I can also find link building prospects.

The biggest problem this tool from Ahrefs solves is helping me discover high-quality content ideas so I don’t have to do the guesswork. Using this tool, I can also;

• Identify gaps in my content strategy along with guest posting opportunities 
• Find influencers to connect with and 
• Discover PROVEN competitor strategies to improve my own rankings

Once on the tool, I enter any topic to find the best-performing posts.

As shown above, it shows me a list of all pages along with metrics like DR, referring domains, page traffic value, etc.

If I want to find low-competition topics with high search traffic potential, I’ll use the following filters;

• Domains (up to 10)
• Page traffic (from 500)
• Word count (from 500)

And the tool will show me an excellent topic to cover with high traffic potential.

I can also easily see which keywords each page ranks for. I simply click “Page traffic”, which will show me a list of keywords in the “Organic keywords” tab.

Sometimes, the data I get from Content Explorer is NOT up-to-date, especially for less popular topics. 

If finding high-performing content and link-building opportunities is your primary goal, I’d definitely invest in Ahrefs for the Content Explorer feature.

---

Rank Tracker

To track my website’s current keyword positions, Ahrefs offers a tool called “Rank Tracker,” which tracks my keyword performance across different locations and devices.

Precise rank tracking is essential because it allows me to see what keywords are performing well and which keywords lost their rankings so I can work on improving those contents.

Here’s what the Rank Tracker tool looks like;

As shown above, I can easily monitor my site’s keyword rankings, where I get essential metrics like share of voice, average position, traffic, etc.

I can click on keyword positions to see a list of their current rankings along with other details like;

• Intents
• Traffic
• Keyword difficulty, clicks, CPC, etc

One big drawback I’ve noticed with Ahrefs Rank Tracker is that it doesn’t provide me with daily rank tracking updates, which can be frustrating when monitoring keyword performance.

For daily tracking updates, I’ve to purchase a separate add-on called “Project Boost Max,” which costs $200/mo per project, which is expensive. 

Overall, Ahrefs Rank Tracker is good. But if I’m only looking for precise ranking with daily updates, I’ll choose other alternatives like Semrush or SE Ranking.

---

Site Audit:

The Site Audit tool from Ahrefs lets me crawl my entire site to find 140+ technical and on-page SEO issues.

Most bloggers often struggle to boost their search traffic despite creating great content because of SEO issues such as broken links, crawling issues, etc.

That’s why I often use site audit tools to monitor technical issues.

To run a crawl, I create a new project and either import my websites from Google Search Console (GSC) or add them manually.

Once the crawling is done, I’ll get a health score for my site along with an overview of SEO issues.

As shown above, my site’s current health score is 99 out of 100, which means it has no significant issues.

Ahrefs site audit tool shows me issues in the form of errors, warnings and notices. Errors are what I should mostly focus on because they are the severe issues that can negatively impact my site’s performance and search rankings.

I can also click on “All Issues” to prioritize by working on the red ones first (Errors), which represent errors. Then, I can work on the yellow ones (warnings) and the blue ones (notices).

Once I fix issues, I can recrawl my entire site and the tool will give me a new health score. 

Ahrefs’ site audit tool helps me identify and fix most SEO issues but it often doesn’t detect highly severe technical issues that are preventing my site from getting better rankings. 

---

Ahrefs Pricing: Which Plan Offers Best Value for Money?

Ahrefs offers four pricing plans; when you pay annually, you get 2 months free with all plans.

Plan	Monthly Subscription Cost	Annual Subscription Cost
Lite	$129/mo	$108/mo
Standard	$249/mo	$208/mo
Advanced	$449/mo	$374/mo
Enterprise	Not available	$14,990/yr

Ahrefs does NOT offer free trials. So, I’d recommend you try their basic plan (Lite) for a month to see if it’s the right investment for you.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of Ahrefs plans:

1. Ahrefs Lite Plan

This is the cheapest starter plan from Ahrefs which costs $129/mo (or $108/mo if paid annually). This plan is great for beginners or those who want to try its features.

Ahrefs Lite plan offers the following limits;

• 5 projects
• 6 months of historical data
• 750 tracked keywords
• 100,000 crawl credits
• 500 credits per user
• 1 user included

This plan gives me access to the essential tools: Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, Competitive Analysis, SERP History, Page Inspect, and Web Analytics.

2. Ahrefs Standard Plan

This plan costs $249/mo (or $208/mo if paid annually) and it is great for small businesses and SEO professionals.

Ahrefs Standard plan offers the following limits;

• 20 projects
• 2 years of historical data
• 2,000 tracked keywords
• 500,000 crawl credits
• Unlimited credits per user
• 1 user included

This plan gives me access to all Lite features, along with Portfolios, Content Explorer, Batch Analysis, SERP comparison, and more.

3. Ahrefs Advanced Plan

This plan costs $449/mo (or $374/mo if paid annually) and it is excellent for most agencies and in-house SEO teams managing multiple sites.

Ahrefs Advanced plan offers the following limits;

• 50 projects
• 5 years of historical data
• 5,000 tracked keywords
• 1,500,000 crawl credits
• Unlimited credits per user
• 1 user included

This plan gives me access to all Standard features, along with Web Explorer, Looker Studio integration, Search type distribution, Agency directory listing, and more.

4. Ahrefs Enterprise Plan

This plan is created for those who want custom needs and limits. Its pricing starts at $14,990 per year and the pricing depends on your requirements.

Ahrefs Enterprise plan gives me all the features from the Advanced plan, Plus;

• API Access
• SSO and enterprise-grade security
• Access management and audit log
• Unlimited historical data
• Personalized higher limits and data exports
• Forecasting and trends

Try Ahrefs Today

---

Top 2 Alternatives to Ahrefs

I’ve used dozens of SEO tools and the best Ahrefs alternatives I’ve found so far are Semrush and SE Ranking. So, let’s compare them and see which one comes out on top.

1. Ahrefs vs Semrush

Semrush is the TOP alternative to Ahrefs for one big reason: it offers over 55 tools under one roof. With Semrush, I get access to the ultimate toolkit for SEO, PPC, social media marketing, content marketing, etc. That’s why I’ve been using Semrush since 2016.

Unlike Ahrefs, Semrush offers excellent limits with ALL plans. I don’t have to worry about exhausting credits when doing keyword research, competitor analysis, etc. Also, the monthly plans for both Ahrefs and Semrush begin at around $120.

Here’s a table showing some of the reasons to choose Semrush over Ahrefs:

Feature	Semrush	Ahrefs
Free Trial	Semrush offers a generous 14-day free trial with Pro and Guru plans.	Not Available
Limits	Generous	Stricter limits, especially on lower-tier plans
Number of Tools	Over 55 tools	A smaller set of tools, in comparison
PPC Data	Full suite is available	Not Available
Value for Money	Personally, I get more out of Semrush than Ahrefs for a similar cost.	Ahrefs is not ideal for smaller teams or solo users.

For more information, you can read my unbiased Semrush review.

2. Ahrefs vs SE Ranking

The #1 reason to consider SE Ranking over Ahrefs is its affordability. I can access all the essential SEO tools at half the price of Ahrefs.

With SE Ranking, I get access to keyword suggestions, backlink analysis, competitor research, site audits, local marketing tools, and more.

Here’s a table showing some of the reasons to choose SE Ranking over Ahrefs:

Feature	SE Ranking	Ahrefs
Interface	Extremely easy to use	Easy
Pricing	SE Ranking is significantly cheaper (Starts at $52/mo)	More expensive (Starts at $108/mo)
Rank Tracking	Extremely Accurate	Accurate
Free Trial	SE Ranking offers a 14-day free trial	Not Available

If you want to find more details about this tool, read my detailed review of SE Ranking.

---

FAQs About Ahrefs SEO Tool

---

Final thoughts

Ahrefs excels in backlink analysis and in-depth keyword research. If these are the primary focus areas for your SEO strategy, then Ahrefs is an excellent choice. Its interface is easy to use, and its Content Explorer feature helps you discover high-performing content.

However, if you’re looking for an all-in-one toolkit for all your SEO/PPC needs, you can try its competitors like Semrush or SE Ranking.

My #1 recommendation for those interested in Ahrefs is to try its Lite plan and explore Ahrefs’ main features without spending too much.

Did you find this in-depth Ahrefs tutorial useful? Do you still have any questions? Let me know in the comments.